


Fernando

by Pearlislove



Series: Mamma Mia oneshots [13]
Category: Mamma Mia! (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Gen, How Donna met her father, Mamma Mia 2 reimagained, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-25
Updated: 2018-10-14
Packaged: 2019-07-02 08:26:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 11,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15792777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pearlislove/pseuds/Pearlislove
Summary: Donna sees the face smiling in the frame, and she can feel her heart sinking down into her stomach.Ruby SheridanJuly 1959By pure coincidence, Donna is caught up in the midst of a love story spanning fourty-five years, including not only her much hated mother, but the father she never knew.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A completely reimagaining of Mamma Mia 2 
> 
> Also, just to be clear, the chapters are supposed to be out of order chronoligically. In the next chapter you'll see what led up to this chapter.

Making sure a second time that the door to her bedroom was locked, Donna stared down at the screen of her phone, bewildered and disbelieving.

 

4 missed calls, 8 texts and 2 voice messages from a number she did not recognise, though the content quickly identified the person behind it.

 

_ I’m sorry _

 

_ Please pick up Donna _

 

_ I know you hate me but please _

 

_ I need you to answer _

 

_ Just this once _

 

_ Donna Maria Valentina Sheridan _

 

Against her better knowing, Donna quickly saved down the number under the simple banner of ‘Mother’. With one eyes closed, she pulled up the new contact, trying to convince herself to call it. The tiny green cell phone button teased her, screaming at her that she was a coward who was not strong enough to press it.

 

A stupid, reckless little slut who didn’t have the balls to call her own mother.

 

Finally, Donna’s thumb touched it, starting the phone call and pressing the metal box against her ear before she could regret it.

 

_ “Donna! You...you called me back!” _

 

The voice was just as she remembered it. The sweet, charming voice of her mother, echoing in her ear ass she spoke to her daughter as though it had been a week, rather than two decades. Kind and polite, yet oddly desperate, it spoke to her, and Donna felt her heart swell despite all.

 

The last time Donna spoke to her, she’d been screaming profanities at her daughter, and even just the respect she showed her was enough to make Donna feel loved in a way she hadn’t in a long time.

_  
_ “I am only calling you because I need you to confirm something for me. This has nothing to do with you contacting me.” Donna quickly lay down the rules for her mother, trying not to get either of their hopes up. This was no reunion or reconciliation. She was only calling because no one else could confirm what she knew. “My father’s name is Fernando Cienfuegos. You met him in July 1959 in Mexico. You were an opener for a mini tour for some big singer, and you fell in love.” Once Donna started, she couldn’t stop. All the information she had gathered that morning, she presented as facts to her mother, waiting for her confirmation or denial.

 

_ “Donna. My darling...”  _ Her voice was quiet, careful and so, so scared. Donna had never heard her mother this scared and vulnerable, not once. She had never shown even as much as the slightest shock at something unexpected, but now she was breaking down completely. “ _ How do you know this? I can’t...where did you find this information, Donna?” _

 

“It doesn’t matter.” Donna insisted, knowing very well that it  _ did  _ matter. If her father was her employee, that would be complicated. If Fernando Cienfuegos did not know that he had managed to make his beloved Ruby pregnant, it was even more complicated. “I just want a yes or a no.”

 

_ “It’s not that easy, Donna. Fernando Cienfuegos, he…” _

 

“Yes or no, mother.” Donna said the last word with fear, knowing her mother would either be softened by it or it would upset her further. Either way, it felt strange on Donna’s tongue, and she wondered how many years since she just said that word to someone and ment her own parent. “I don’t care about you or why you tried to call me. I want you to answer the question, and then leave me alone for another  _ twenty five years _ !”  

 

A sigh. An audible, heartbreaking sigh came through on the line.  _ “Yes. I love you Donna, and whichever way you found this all out, I am so sorry.” _

 

“Thank you mother” Donna presses the red phone, ending the conversation before anything further could be said. Her mother had confirmed what she suspected, and now she knew it for a fact.

 

Fernando Cienfuegos was her father.

 

Her mother had spent a sunny summer in the deserts of Mexico, only to come home and realize she was pregnant with the man she met there.

 

Turning to her drawer, Donna quickly dug out a handful of photos she kept hidden underneath some old Donna and The Dynamos fliers dating back to 1976.

 

As she lifted them out of their hideout for the first time in years she felt herself shaking. What she held in her hands was evidence. All the credentials she needed to convince Fernando Cienfuegos that what she was about to tell him was true.

 

“Mum?” A knock on the door, and Sophie’s voice could be heard through the cracks in the wood. “Señor Cienfuegos is here to see you, can you open the door?”

 

Donna barely dared to breath. Of course he would follow her. She had acted weirdly, and he needed to know why, wanting to ask for an explanation he very much deserved once she had had sufficient time to calm down from whatever had overcome her at his cottage.

 

With trembling fingers, she twisted the lock and opened the door. The hinges complained as it supported the heavy piece of wood and Donna let their grinding noise fill the silence as both Sophie and Fernando came into view. 

 

“Come in” She said, her hand with the photos kept behind her back as she stepped aside and let her father into her room.

 

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sophie watching them. He powder blue eyes were wide in wonderland though Donna could tell she wanted an explanation, she was not going to give her one. 

 

Not yet

 

“Me and your mother will need some privacy” Fernando told Sophia gently, carefully closing the door once more behind him. Once it was done, he turned to look at her expectantly.

 

“I can explain” Donna said.

 

He nodded. “Then do”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this chapter is what happened before the last chapter, leading up to it.
> 
> I am soincredibly happy with how many people love this fanfic! Thank you! Hope you like the second chapter too!!!

"Buenos Días, Señor Cienfuegos" Donna smiled, easily greeting her new manager in accented Spanish. "I've just come to check on the paperwork I asked you to sort out for me. Is it ready?" 

 

“Buenos Días, Señora Sheridan.” Smiling back, Fernando nodded his head towards her. “It’s ready. Come in.” Moving away from the door, he lett Donna into his home.

 

"For the last time, Señor Cienfuegos, me llamo Donna. No es Señora Sheridan." She laughed, moving on into the kitchen which doubled as living room in the small house.

 

"Sí. Me llamo Fernando. If you use my name, I use yours.” He smile fondly, gesturing to his kitchen chair. "Por favor, take a seat. I will retrieve the papers from my bedroom, and then I will explain what it is I’ve done to them”

 

Donna nodded, sitting down on the chair he designated for her. "Gracias.” She watched him ducking into the next room, while she waited on her chair. Soon enough, she started idly drumming her fingers against her knee as she felt the familiar restlessness setting in.

 

Trying to distract herself while she waited, she looked around the tiny cottage. The walls were painted in a light shade of blue with little multicolored flowers climbing up the walls. The wall closest had additionally been decorated with a number of black and white photos. Clearly taken a long time ago,they showed what must be a young Fernando, both alone and together with an eerily familiar young woman.

 

"What the..." Confused and baffled, Donna rose to her feet to look closer at the photos. The dark hair and pronounced cheekbones of the young woman in them were all too familiar to Donna, and a small, shocked smile spreading across her lips as she finally realized who she was looking at. "Mum..." She whispered, almost scared from what she sees.

 

Donna had never been a mummy's girl. When she was little, she had looked up to Ruby Sheridan and longed to be a star like her. As she grew up, however, she had realized that her mother was more devoted to her audience than to her family, and their relationship had deteriorated quickly.

 

By the time Sophie was born, Donna had ended her relationship with her mother, and was alm the happier for it.

 

"Ah, I see you are admiring my photo collection. They were taken in my youth, back home in Mejico." He smile, coming up to stand next to Donna and admiring the the photos as well.

 

Donna swallowed hard, resisting the urge to move away from Fernando as he came closer. She had never been particularly fussy about personal space and appropriate distances, as long as she knew she could trust the person, but considering the situation she hardly felt she could trust Fernando.

 

 

Did he know? Was Fernando aware that he had pictured of his employers mother hanging on his wall? Or was it simply a coincidence, and Fernando knew nothing of the woman in the picture and who she became later in her life...

 

 

Swallowing again, Donna took the chance to ask some of the questions that bothered her. “Que es la mujer? A singer?" She put her fingertips against the glass of one the pictures, observing her mother's frozen face as she sang her heart out for the crowds on a stage. Who is that woman, she had asked Fernando, her awful Spanish hardly making justice to the importance of the question as she talked to Fernando.

 

"A singer, yes. Se llama Ruby...una chica muy hermosa. And she had the beautifulest voice I have ever heard! I didn't know her for long, but what little time we had was blessed" Fernando smiled, stroking a finger against the glass of the picture showing the two of them. Him and Ruby, his beloved sweetheart. "She was opening for an singer doing a mini tour down in Mejico in July 1959. Many years ago now, but still there in mi corazon. My heart."

 

Donna froze. She had felt confused and suspicious earlier, but hearing the dates it all got so much worse. July, 1959. He gave her a date, and that date was only seven months before she herself had been born. 

 

 

In February 1960, Ruby Sheridan had given birth to her only child, and seven months before that she’d spent a month in Mexico with Fernando Cienfuegos.

 

What did that mean? Donna wanted to ask Fernando more questions. She wanted to grill him until she knew exactly what he meant to her, but she was scared he would understand that she knew something he didn’t and grill her back. 

 

"Anyway, Donna, shall we look at the contract?"  Fernando put a hand on her shoulder, quickly dragging her out of her thoughts.

 

She nodded. "Absolutely" Donna agreed, sitting back down on the chair with Fernando right next to her. The twenty page document lay before them, and Donna felt herself tense as the hotel manager opened the document and his arm rubbed slightly against hers.

 

 

Who was Fernando Cienfuegos, and what did he mean to Donna Sheridan?

 

For a long while, they sat there. Fernando went through the document page by page, explaining the changes he made, and though Donna tried her hardest to listen and be attentive, but it did not work.

 

Her eyes and her mind kept straying back to the pictures on the walls. 

 

 

To the central American fling that she had once been told broke her mother's heart, and to the man, who was supposed to be her father.

 

"Donna? Señora Sheridan, is everything alright?" At page 18, Fernando stopped. It was obvious his boss was no longer listening her eyes kept straying to the photos on his wall, and he wondered what it was that fascinated her so much.

 

 

What would his boss, an American woman who’d lived in Greece since the 70s, have to do with a lover from his youth back home in Mexico?

 

Donna startled, surprised by his voice and realising her mind had slipped.  "Señor Cienfuegos, this will sound like a weird question, but Ruby” She gestures to the photos, making clear who she was referring to. “Was she pregnant when you met? Did she tell you that she was expecting a baby?” 

 

 

Confused by the question, Fernando shook his head. “No, she was not. I believe she would have told me if she was.” He frowned, trying to figure out why he was being asked about this. “Donna, por favor, will you tell me why are you asking these questions?”

 

 

Donna shook her head. “I’m sorry, I can’t. I… I have to go. I really am sorry” She got up to leave, fear eating her up from the inside out. She couldn’t stay, not now, not when she knew. Tears were streaming down her face as she excused herself. “I’m so, so sorry”

 

 

Terrified, Fernando watched as his boss raced out of his house with tears in her eyes. He had no idea what had happened, or what it was that upset Donna, but he knew he needed to find out.

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, thank you everyone for your continued support!
> 
> Continuety wise, we are back right after chapter 1!
> 
> So, as you might've noticed, this fanfic is getting a bit longer than I thought it would. Whether there'll be 5 or 6 chapters I'm not sure, but I'm quite certain 4 chapter is not going to be enough.

_Setting foot on the polished stone paving, Ruby sighed deeply._

 

_Against her better knowing, she had come all the way to Greece. She had jumped into that helicopter and let it take her to Kalokairi, knowing very well she was not welcome there._

 

_Against her better knowing, she had come to see her only child._

 

_“Who are you? What are you doing here?”_

 

_She looks up, and for a second, she thinks she is staring at a ghost. With wispy blonde hair and piercing blue eyes, Sophie Sheridan looks just like her mother once had, when she was young._

 

_“My name is Ruby Sheridan, and I’m here to see your mother.”_

 

* * *

 

_“And you are positive that...that you are mine? And no one else's?” Fernando asked, trying hard to wrap his head around the facts presented to him._

 

_“I was born two months early. You met my mum seven months before I was born. It could be no one else.” Donna assured the older man, her hand resting on his shaking fists. Feeling them still trembling, she pulled him into a tight hug._

 

_“I love you, dad”_

  


* * *

 

 

“Mum! Mum please open the door!” Sophie was desperate, terrified to find her mother had locked her door once more as she talked to the hotel manager.

 

Sophie didn’t know what was going on between her mother and Señor Cienfuegos, but she knew that the current situation most definitely took presidency.

 

“I’m here, I’m here, calm down. What is happening Sophie?” Donna opened the door, a bit worried by her daughters sudden panic as she heard her hands baging against the wood. Behind her stood Fernando, casually observing his upset grandchild.

 

Though he had at first been doubtful of his employers sudden claims, the photos she showed were undeniable. Next to the tiny blond baby that had once been Donna, was the face of the woman he remembered so well from that hot month they spent together in Mexico. Even the stage outfit had been  familiar and all at once, it made sense.

 

He was the father of Donna Maria Valentina Sheridan, who in turn was the result of the short but heated love affair between him and his beloved Ruby.

 

Only seven months after she left, she had given birth to their daughter.

 

“It’s...she’s…” Sophie swallowed hard, her worried gaze meeting her mothers as she tried to figure out how to tell her the news. “My grandmother is here.” She said, all but trembling with fear as she anticipated her mother's violent reaction to the statement.

 

Though she had never been told the details, Sophie knew her mother had been thrown out by her grandmother when she became pregnant with her, and that they hadn’t spoken nor seen each other since.

 

Still, now her grandmother was here, at the hotel, wanting to speak to the daughter she had cast aside so long ago.

 

To Sophie's surprise, however, it was not her mother who reacted to the statement first. Instead, it was their hotel manager whose eyes went wide.

 

“Ruby is here?” Fernando stared at the girl, barely believing the words that left her mouth. Donna had been very clear on the fact that she and her mother, Ruby, were estranged, and that even though he had her she could not mediate any contact with her mother…

 

And still, fate had other plans than to keep them separated any longer. Somehow, they had still managed to bring

 

“She’s outside. She’s waiting for mum.” Sophie said, confused as to how the hotel manager could know her grandmother, when she barely did herself.

 

“I _told_ her to leave me alone” Donna groaned, hardly believing that her day could get any more complicated than it already had. “ _Why_ did she not listen to me?!”

 

“You spoke to her? Recently? You told you were not in contact!” Fernando felt hurt and betrayed. Half an hour ago, his daughter had insisted she had no contact with her mother, and could not helo Fernando to get in contact with her either, but now it turned out that they obviously spoke not too long ago. Indecisive, he looked away. “Perhaps Ruby will tell me the truth.”

 

Not waiting for Donna to explain herself further, Fernando set off down the path, half running as he sought to escape his deceptive daughter and find his old lover.

 

“Fernando!” Donna screamed, hesitating but a second before she sat off running after her father.  She could feel her heart beating out of her chest, terrified as she realized that her father was going to reunite with her mother for the first time in forty five years.

 

It was going to be a big, horrible, messy family reunion ten time worse than having to sort out the fact that Sophie had three dads in the middle of her wedding ceremony.

 

“Mum?! What’s going on?!” Sophie watched in horror as her mother and the hotel manager ran away, wondering if it was a good idea to follow. She wanted to, but there was clearly a lot happening that had nothing to do with her, and she was scared to get caught up in the middle of it. “Oh, damn it! Mum!”

 

Giving up worrying, Sophie set off as well, running to try and catch up with her mother as she ran away.

 

* * *

 

As Fernando came towards balcony, he saw a woman waiting there. She had her back turned towards him, but somehow - even after forty five years - her recognized his Ruby.

 

She was dressed in a glittering silver outfit, it and her white curls shining as the last light of the setting sun hit her straight on.

 

Inhaling sharply, he watched as she turned around. Those big dark eyes that he remembered so clearly met his, and then, she spoke.

 

“Donna?”

 

Fernando could feel himself being pushed against the wall as as Donna raced passed his still form, desperation filling her voice a she called out instead of him.

 

“Mother!"


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the continued support! This fanfic keeps on growing and so does the comments and it fills my heart with love!
> 
> Lyrics from:
> 
> Fernando by ABBA 
> 
> One by one by Enya

Ruby watched her daughter running up to  her with equal parts horror and delight. Just out of her reach, her daughter stops. 

 

Anger and fear and hatred burn on her daughter’s face, and Ruby can tell Donna is waiting for her to speak. 

 

She tries to explain, but nothing comes out. The words fail her, and she struggle around violently sobs stocking in her throat. “I missed you, Donna.” She says finally, tears flowing down her cheeks as she cry. Oh, how she’d missed her daughter during all those years of separation. “I should never have told you to go.”

 

“Don't say that!” Donna screamed, anger bubbling to the surface first of all the emotions she was feeling. “Don’t pretend that you care about me all of a sudden! It’s been twenty five years since you told me not to bother coming back!”

 

Ruby sigh. She had expected this. She knew her daughter too well to hope that she would take anything she had to say at face value. “I know, and we are both old. Old enough to know better.” Ruby knows it’s not enough,  know that needs something more to convince Donna. “It's no lie, she is yearning to fly. She says Adios, says Adios...And now you know why, she's a reason to sigh. She says Adios, says Adios, Goodbye” The first thing that comes to her is a song, an old lullaby Ruby would sing to put her fussy baby to sleep, and she sings her heart out, hoping it will sway her little girl.

 

Donna recognise the song, and her heart burns with love that she’s suppressed for years, barely daring to hope that this could mean  _ chang.  _ “My, oh my, she was aiming too high. She says Adios, says Adios...And now you know why, there's no moon in her sky...She says Adios, says Adios, Goodbye” Singing, the lyrics bringing Donna back to a time so long past it was almost forgotten. Hot tears born from anger and sadness burn in her eyes as she nonetheless make her decision. “I’m sorry, mother, but you’re too late. Please get off my property as soon as possible.”

Donna turned around, promptly running away from her mother as the tears streamed down her cheeks in rivers. For a moment, she had been swayed, but then the pain came flooding back and she knew that she could never see eye to eye with her mother.

 

“Donna wait!” Heartbroken, Ruby watched as her  daughter stormed off, trying to follow her as fast as her stilettos would allow her to move.

 

But instead of Ruby reaching her daughter’s retreating form, she walks straight into a man that comes moving in front of her out of nowhere, and she nearly screams as he grab her arms and force her to a stop. 

 

“Ruby” Fernando gaze down upon his old lover, her dark, terrified eyes meeting his, and he is transported back to the first time her met her.

 

In the desert of Mexico, with the war just starting and the roar of cannons and guns surrounded them as he led the terrified stranger to the shelter of his house, hiding  in the cramped space behind his sofa as they waited out the battle.

 

“Fernando?!” As soon as she sees his eyes she recognise him. His touch bring her forty-five years back in time and  _ Oh,  _ this was how Donna had found out. She hadn’t just heard a story from someone - she had met the original, the man she lost so long ago. “Do you hear the drums, Fernando?” She asked him, teasing lightly

 

He smile. His hand come up to her cheeks, grabbing her petite face and pulling it close to him. He longs to kiss her, but doesn’t dare, not yet. “I remember long ago another starry night like this...In the firelight, Ruby. I was humming to myself and softly strumming my guitar. You could hear the distant drums,and sounds of bugle calls were coming from afar”

 

It’s magical how easily time backs for the both of them. How quickly forty-five years can rewind and disappear. Grey strands left his beard and the full black colour returned to Ruby’s white hair as they imagined being young again.

 

“I was so afraid Fernando. We were young and full of life and none of us prepared to die...I'm not ashamed to say the roar of guns and cannons almost made me cry.” She can feel salt tears gliding down her cheeks, and she swallows hard. “I thought you died.” She says, almost feeling ashamed at how easily all the hurt and pain of the last four decades leave her when she sees Fernando. “It’s what I told anyone who asked.”

 

“Well, I am not. I’m here, with you, Mi Amore” He pull her even closer, the both of them grinning as he kiss her gently on the lips, quickly parting again afterwards. “There was something in the air that night, the stars were bright. They were shining there for you and me, for liberty, Ruby. Though I never thought that we could lose, there is no regrets.”

 

The kiss is quick, but gentle, and Ruby feels her heart soaring. She feels love and adoration swelling inside her and she doesn’t believe there is a better feeling in the world. “Now we're old and grey Fernando, and since many years I haven't seen a rifle in your hand...Can you hear the drums Fernando? Do you still recall the frightful night we crossed the Rio Grande?   
I can see it in your eyes, how proud you were to fight for freedom in this land.” 

 

He smiles, hugging her tight and lifting her off the ground a little in the process . “In a day, I have won a daughter and a lover. I do not think I will ever be happier than I am today.”

 

Ruby was about to answer Fernando’s loving statement, when she heard the crash of something breaking behind her. Turning around, both her and Fernando saw the beautiful decorated plant pot that now lay in pieces on the stone pavement. Beyond it, Ruby barely had time to catch sight of the blonde hair waving in the wind behind the young girl fleeing the scene.

 

“Sophie!” Ruby called for her, but seeing that her granddaughter was not stopping, she turned to look at Fernando apologetically. “I’m sorry, Fernando. I just...it’s my granddaughter” She gestured to where Sophie had disappeared, desperate. She had failed to broker peace with her daughter, and yet to even talk with her granddaughter, who no doubt hated her too. “I have to try, even if it’s too late.”

 

Despite all these setbacks, she still knew she had to try more. Ruby Sheridan was  _ not  _ a quieter, and she refused to just give up. 

 

Not until she had done all she could and still failed horrifically.

 

Fernando nodded, nonetheless still holding his lover close. Donna had filled him in on some of the details, and from it he understood the situation Ruby was in.

 

“I’ll come along with you. She is, after all, both our child.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love all my readers sooo much!I wish I could hug you all and tell you to your face how happy all those kudos and comments that keep dropping in every chapter!
> 
> I am going to warn that there is a possibility this fanfic will go up to 10 chapters, or the next one could end with the next chapter. I don't know, but either way I am so terrifically happy with how well this fanfic is doing.

_ “Donna? Is everything alright dear? Hold on, I’ll put you on speaker phone for Tanya.”  _ Before Donna could even say a word, Rosie dived straight into fussy mother mood, fixing with the phone and trying to offer Donna the best available support.

 

_ “Hello? Donna, can you tell us what’s wrong?”  _ Tanya is more sensible. She goes straight to the core problem, not displaying much empathy or kindness but rather sticking to logically level-headedness.

 

It made Donna breath a little easier. At this point, kindness was useless. What she needed was rock solid advice. “It’s my mother.” She cried hopelessly. “She’s here and she tried to fix everything and sooner or later she is going to realize my father is here too!” Donna sobbed, tears wetting her face. “I don’t know what to do!”

 

_ “Your mother? I Thought that hagg had gone and died!”  _

 

_ “But I thought her father was the one that was dead?” _

 

“No, no, no! They’re both alive and...and my dad is working for me!” Donna exclaimed, shaking her head even though Rosie and Tanya couldn’t see her.

 

_ “You’re dad work for you?!”  _ Both Tanya and Rosie screeched, surprised and excited at what they heard.

 

Yes! One of my employees has pictures of my mum taken less than a year before I was born hanging on his wall!” Donna exclaimed, frustrated. Caught up in her rage, she slammed her fists against the first thing she saw, which happened the be the armchair Sophie had broken when she was five. Her fists sunk deep into the filling, and Donna growled in anger. “The same day I find my father, my mother starts calling me and begging for forgiveness. I told her to  _ stay away  _ and she  _ came here  _ instead!”

 

“Mum? Are you up here?” 

 

Whatever responses Tanya and Rosie might have offered, they were drowned out by Sophie’s voice as she came clambering up the ladder to the upper level of the old goat house.

 

“Sophie!” Barely remembering to end the call with Tanya and Rosie, Donna rise to her feet and catch her daughter in a tight hug. “Oh I’m so sorry darling. I was going to explain it all; but then my  _ mother  _ showed up and it just all fell apart so very quickly.”

 

“Schh, it’s okay mum it’ll be fine” A bit worried, Sophie tried her best to comfort her mother as she cried against her shoulder. Never before had she seen Donna this upset, and she could feel her stomach twisting painfully. “Mum, I just...I need you to explain what is happening”

 

Donna sigh, trying her best to mop up her tears. “I know I do. Come here, sweetie.” Carefully, she grabbed Sophie by the arm and sat her down on the broken chair, quickly landing on the floor next to her. “Look, you remember what I told you about me and your grandmother, right?”

 

Sophie nodded, listening intently. “She was always very distant and focused more in her career than you, and then when you got pregnant she got super angry threw you out. You told me that before my wedding that didn’t happen.” Sophie explained, pulling the information from her memory. “Mum, what does grandmother have to do with Señor Cienfuegos? I saw them back at the balcony and...they were kissing!”

 

“Kissing? Oh god!” Hearing that Sophie had witnessed her parents kissing, Donna felt both embarrassed and anxious. Her mother had found Fernando, and somehow, it seemed to have gone  _ well _ . “Look, Sophie, Señor Cienfuegos...he’s your grandfather. And before you get angry, I didn't know either. Not until this morning. I swear!” Donna held up her hands defensively, trying to protect herself from the rage bubbling in her daughter. She knew Sophie must think she’d betrayed her, but she hadn’t. Donna would never have dreamed of doing so, not after all she’d been through with her own mother. “When I was young, I was just like you. My mother was eighteen when she had me, and I didn’t know anything about my father. Not even as much as I told you growing up. My mother just refused to talk about him all together… when I was ten, I heard her tell someone he’d died. Somewhere along the way I accepted it was all I'd ever know”

 

Sophie listened to her mother, feeling sudden anger filling her as she told her that Señor Cienfuegos, the hotel manager, was in fact her grandfather. How could her mother not tell her such a thing?! Still listening, the anger quickly died down again  though, as her mother patiently explained that she had not know of this fact until a few hours earlier. By the time Donna finished, the only feeling Sophie felt was pity. “Oh, mum I’m so sorry. You deserve much better” Once more, Sophie hugged her mother tightly.

 

Sophie knew the feeling so well. The pain of not having a father, and the joy of having them back. But that also made it all the more incomprehensible. Sophie had found out who her father was when she was twenty. Her mother was now forty-five, and had only just learnt the truth.

 

And Sophie loved her mother, once her fathers joined she had the perfect, loving family. Donna had gone over two decades without talking her mother, and would most likely never have that perfect family that Sophie did, no matter how close she’d get to her father.

 

“Oh baby, it’s alright. I know the truth now, and it will be alright...somehow” Donna sighed, happily accepting the hug as Sophie held her close. As she hugged her daughter, though a thousand thoughts flew through her head. What would she do with her mother? Was her father on her mother’s side now, or would Fernando still listen to her? She did not know, and it scared her.

 

“Mum, whatever you are thinking it  _ will _ be okay. I’ll deal with both grandma and grandpa myself if you can’t face them. Whatever it takes, we’ll  _ fix _ this.” Feeling her mother tense, Sophie did her best to reassure her some more. Donna had suffered enough, and Sophie refused to let her suffer further if she could help it.

 

“Donna? Are you up there?” Fernando Cienfuegos voice could be heard calling up to them from the lower floor.

 

“Oh my god! They’re here!” Jumping away from the hatch, Donna could feel all the panic come flowing over like tidal wave, drowning her completely as she tried not to break down crying again. “I don’t know what to do…!”

 

“Schh, mum! They're going to hear you!” While Donna backed away, Sophie crawled towards it. “I’ll tell them I’m alone and make them go away. Okay?” Sophie looked at her mum, waiting for her approval before she did anything.

 

Listening to her daughter's plan, Donna nodded helplessly. “Thank you” She whispered, tears wetting her cheeks despite all. 

 

For as guilty as Donna felt for having her daughter protecting her against her own parents, it felt ten time better than the mere thought of actually having to face them instead.

 

Sophie nodded, turning towards the hatch and opening it, sticking out her head so that she could see both Señor Cienfuegos and her grandmother standing down on the bottom floor of the goathouse. 

 

“Mum’s not here, it’s just me”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go! The big reunion! Or? What will happen when Sophie comes down that ladder?
> 
> Please keep commenting and giving kudos! I know this and the last chapter has been a littke mire 'slow-burn' than the first 4 but it wiml pick up again!
> 
> Also, I have no idea how long this fanfic will be. Im giving up i just don't know

_ Nervous, Ruby ran her hands down over her body. She was standing in front of her bedroom mirror in the hotel, twisting her body one way and the other, posing to get a better view of her body and her stomach. _

 

_ “No no no” She whined, sudden fear gripping her and making her nauseous as she saw what she least of all wanted to. “It can’t be!” _

 

_ The baby bump was small but noticeable. It was a wonder no one else had mentioned it to her yet, and Ruby could feel the panic rising inside her as she pulled her dress back on and it barely fitted over her swollen abdomen. _

 

_ Ruby wasn't an idiot. She had noticed when her clothes started getting harder to put on, fabric straining to cover her skin. Sexy, tight and revealing was her gimmick, and even the smallest weight gain quickly became apparent in such outfits. _

 

_ And yet, despite all this, Ruby ignored it. She continue to deny that it was possible that she could have brought with her more than just a broke heart home from Mexico until she came to the point where she couldn't deny it. Her stomach was too big and growing too fast and she had to face the facts before something happened.  _

 

_ She was pregnant. _

 

\----

 

_ “I was only eighteen, and I didn’t even know if you were alive. If I would still have a job once they found out. It was terrifying.” Ruby sighed, leaning into Fernando’s side. He had his arm wrapped tight around her shoulders, and it felt so good. Despite her relations with her daughter and grandchild still being nonexistent, Ruby was quite certain this was the happiest she had felt in a long time. _

 

_ “I’m sorry I was not there for you. No matter what happens, I am here now. I am not leaving you ever again.” Smiling a bittersweet smile, Fernando placed a kiss on Ruby’s forehead. _

 

_ “Don’t make promises you may not be able to keep. I’d rather you have your daughter and granddaughter by your side than give them up for me.” Ruby  looked down at the ground, shame burning inside her.  _

 

_ She had destroyed her relationship with her child long ago and now, many years later, her daughters father might have to pay the price. Fernando was too stubborn not to stick to her side once he’d promised to do so, and she feared how much it might end up costing him in the end. _

 

_ “Speaking of which, we have arrived at our destination. The old goat house is always where the Sheridan women comes to hide, and I have no doubt at least one of them will be here.” Fernando said, gesturing to the old house in front of him. _

 

_ “Didn’t I hide in your mother’s goat house at one point?”  Ruby asked, laughing. _

 

_ “Twice.” Fernando confirmed. “It runs in the family” _

 

\----

 

“Hey, I know you were looking for mum, but it’s only me in here.” Sophie smiled at her grandfather, still trying to adapt to the fact that he was, in fact, her grandfather.

 

“You are just as good a gift” Fernando assured her. “Se need to speak to you as well...there is something you should know.” He glanced down at Ruby, nudging her gently to encourage her to make the reveal. As far as Sophie knew, he was still only one of her mother’s employees, and it was more natural for her grandmother to tell her than him.

 

“Fernando is your grandfather, Sophie. I thought he was dead and gone, but obviously that was not the case.” Ruby smiled, trying hard to make a good impression on her grandchild as she leaned against her lover. “He is here, and his name is Fernando Cienfuegos.”

 

Biting her lip, Sophie nodded. “I know” She said quietly. For a moment, the thought of pretending that she didn’t know flew through her head, but she realized it would only put her at risk of being exposed and may have to give up her mother’s location. “Mum told me. She also told me that you never told her anything about him!” She turned to her grandmother staring at her angrily as she remembered what her mother had said. “Why didn’t you just tell her the truth?”

 

Ruby swallowed hard. “Sophie, I’m sorry, but it hurt and I didn’t…” She begins to explain herself, trying to apologise the way she should have done many, many years ago, but is not given a chance to finish as a large crash could be from behind Sophie.

 

Horrified, Ruby watched as the floor above them gave in, a chair crashing down onto the hard-packed mud floor of the lower level of the goat house.

 

“Donna!” Fernando screamed, seeing his daughter falling through the hole along with the broken chair.

 

“Mum!” Turning around to see what was happening Sophie soon followed her grandfather, the both of them soon kneeling by her mother’s side down on the floor. “Mum, are you alright?”

 

“I’m fine, Sophie. I just hit my head a little, I’ll survive.” Donna huffed, her hand grasping at the back of her head where she could feel the bump forming. Despite the renovations they’d done to the hotel, the goat house had been left alone, and Donna regretted it.

 

“Here, let me help you up Donna” Carefully, Fernando held onto his daughter’s arm, helping her to her feet.

 

“Thank you…” Donna paused, watching Fernando’s face as he helped her up. When she sent Sophie to face him, she had been terrified, convinced she would break down completely if she even so much as looked at him. Now, it almost felt  _ good. _ “Dad” She whispered, a small but almost pleasant chill running down her spine as she spoke. He really was her father, and he was holding on to her arm, smiling lovingly at her as he helped her up.

 

Three and a half decades since she’d overheard her mother telling her friend that Donna’s father had died, and he now stood by her side, alive and well.

 

Across the room, Ruby watched as Sophie and Fernando helped her daughter to her feet. Thankfully, Donna seemed unharmed. Her original instinct had been to help, but she smothered it, keeping herself glued to the spot instead.

 

Her daughter hates her, Ruby reminded herself. No matter how much she wished it was not true, Donna had told her it was too late.

 

No amount of helping her off the floor could fix that, and instead, and she only risked aggravating the situation and putting Fernando in trouble.

 

_ “ _ Mum?” Donna’s voice is trembling, as is her body once she is put back to her feet, but all she wish is that her mother would at least grant her the courtesy of looking at her when the two of them were in the same room. She stands off to the side, not even faceing her daughter as she was helped off the floor. Donna may have told her mum that it was too late to fix everything, but she hadn't actually expected her mother to give up. “Mum! Look at me!” 

 

Hearing her daughter call out, scream even, Ruby lifted her eyes off the floor. First, she let them settle on the thin summer dress Donna wore, and then she lifted them a bit more to actually meet her daughter's eyes. Those beautiful, sparkling ocean blue eyes that Donna had gotten from her grandmother. “I’m sorry I’m still here. I will leave as soon as I can. I just need to... _ settle  _ a few things with your father first.” She recalls the way Donna screamed for her to disappear, and apologise for the fact that she hasn’t yet.

 

Donna sigh. Anxiously, she looked back at Fernando and Sophie, who were standing behind her and listening in on every word. “I didn’t mean it like that” She confess, feeling uneasy as she sees her rash, emotional words have affected her mother. “I just...it’s…” Donna close her eyes, feeling tears burning behind her eyelids. “Sophie, dad, can you leave us alone? Just wait outside. Please.” She asked, her eyes still closed as she tried to control her emotions.

 

“Donna, I don’t think that’s a very good idea” Fernando saw the anguish on his daughters face, and feared what she would do if she was left alone with the cause of all that pain.

 

“Of course we will mum” Sophie went the other way. She could hear how desperate her mother was, and decided that it was best to obey. “Come on grandpa. Let’s go outside.” Gently, Sophie pulled at her grandfather’s arm, repeating the motion until he moved along with her, and she could lead him out of the old goat house.

 

Ruby watched with fear and anticipation as her lover and grandchild left. She was now alone with the person who hate her the most, not knowing what she might do. Once more, she decided to try to apologise. “Donna, I really am sorry. If there was anything I could do to make it up to you I would! I promise, I…”

 

“Schh” Donna interjected, holding up her finger to signal for her mother to be quiet. “I love you mum” 

 


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're pulling out allt he guns in this one! You'll be crying when it's over I promise!
> 
> Lyrics (with small chabges) are from:
> 
> My love, my life (Original ABBA version)
> 
> I've been waiting for you (Mamma Mia 2 version)

_ “I love you mama!” Three year old Donna exclaimed excitedly, watching in wide eyed fascination as her mother prepared for her show, covering her face in makeup and adjusting her fake eyelashes. “You are so pretty!” _

 

_ “You are pretty too, Donna.” Ruby smiled at her daughter, lifting her into her arms as she finished with her face. She had an assistant dress Donna in a mini-copy of her mother’s outfit and she looked adorable.  “Are you ready join mommy on stage? It’ll be your first time since you were in mummy’s tummy” _

 

_ “Yeah! I’m a big girl now!” Wrapping her arms around her mother’s neck, she buried her head against her shoulder. “I can be with mummy on stage.” _

 

_ “So you are. I know you’ll do great, little girl. You got glitter in your veins.” Ruby grinned, kissing her daughter on the top of her head. Three years old, her daughter was going to meet the crowds for the first time. “I love you, baby girl.” _

 

* * *

 

“I love you, mum, I really really do” Tears stream Donna's cheeks as she speak. Her heart breaks into tiny fragments as she watch her mum, standing there in front of her and yet being miles away. Who would have thought they were once close? That they had used to mean more than anything else to each other. “But it’s been twenty five years! You told me not to bother ever coming home! How could you  _ do _ that?! How do you think I could  _ forgive  _ that?!”

 

“I don’t, but sooner or later I have to try!” Ruby rebuked. “I met Sophie's boyfriend, Sky something. He came to talk to me because he figured out I was a relative! How do you think I felt to have a twenty-something year old scream in my face about what a horrible mother I am? I asked how you were doing, and he called me a monster!” Ruby could feel tears threatening in her eyes, but swallowed them. Even though her daughter was already crying she did not want to cry too.

 

Donna was shocked. She had no idea that Sky had talked to Ruby, much less screamed in her face. “You  _ are _ a horrible mother! All I ever needed was some support, but the great Ruby Sheridan only had eyes for her audience! I...argh! Sometimes I wish I had never been born at all! You should  _ never _ have been a mum!” Clasping her hands over her mouth, Donna didn’t realize what it was she had said until it was out of her mouth.

 

That was it. Hearing her own daughter say she regretted her birth, Ruby felt the tears rolling down her cheeks. “I am sorry Donna. I told you I would go. You didn’t need to say that to me, true as it may be.” Ruby swallowed hard, not sure what else to say. “But before I go, can I at least tell you why I did what I did? Why I abandoned you and Sophie?” It hurts to say, but Ruby was adamant. If she couldn’t make up with her daughter, then she at least wanted her to know what had happened.

 

Donna watched her mother. She could tell how much that single sentence had broken her, and she regretted all of it. “Yes. Explain” She wished she could forgive, but her pride did not allow it, and she just nodded at her mother. 

 

Ruby sigh. Her knees felt weak and she could see that her fists were trembling. She quickly hide them behind her back. “I was scared, Donna. I saw you making all the mistakes two generations of Sheridan women already had, and I knew where you were heading” Ruby could barely suppress a sob, her voice cracking as she continued. “My mother had me at sixteen, I was eighteen and you were little over twenty. My mother ran away from home when she was twelve. I was fifteen. When you left for Oxford…the only thing left to make the circle complete was that you’d get pregnant. And you did. It  _ hurts _ , because we should be able to do so much better, and yet we keep falling into the same pit.” Ruby cried, the trembles running through her body growing in strength as she continued to speak. “We always fail to give our children something better than what we had, and I didn’t want to wait until the day Sophie went the same way”

 

Donna listened to what her mother said and her heart crumbled further. She remembered when she was little, how it had just been her and her mother, all alone in the big world. Sheridans are a lonely species, her mother had told her when she asked. “But I didn’t do that! I did well, just like I told you I would back then! The baby meant so much to me and you just assumed I’d screw it all up!

 

“No one ever commits to destroying their child's life!” Ruby defended herself. “I told myself I’d be better than my mother but I’m just as bad! At least my mum still had another nine kids who loved her when I ran away. I have lost everything I ever had, and I’m all alone!” Ruby sighed, defeated. Without Donna, she had nothing left. Nothing to fight for and no one to care about. 

 

Once more, Donna found herself shocked into silence. She couldn't recall ever having had such an open conversation with her mother about  _ anything _ , and it felt oddly cathartic. “What about dad?” She asked quietly. “What about Fernando?”

 

Ruby stared and her, at this time it seems she was the shocked one. “You really thought I’d take him with me? You’re his daughter. If we can’t see eye to eye then he is staying here, with you. I don’t care what  _ he  _ thinks of that, I’d never dream of taking him away from you Donna.” She looked down upon the floor. “It’s not as though our love was ever that important.”

 

Hearing her mother say this, Donna could feel her stomach twisting into a painful knot. Without her, or Sophie, Fernando would be the only thing Ruby had. And she was willing to give that up too, just because she wanted her daughter to have him instead. Sighing she ran a hand through her hair. Her blonde curls flow freely, a stark difference to the night black waves her mother had once had.“Why are you here mum? What do you want?”

 

“I’m here because got nothing. I’m alone and I miss my daughter.” Ruby had given up. She’d come to Kalokairi with nothing and left with less. When she came to Greece Fernando had been dead, but when she left again she would know he was alive, and still don’t have him by her side. Because Donna meant more than she ever would to herself. “I didn’t think I could have my daughter back but I didn’t see the harm in trying.” 

 

Hearing this, Donna looked away, sighing. “I've watched you look away. Tell me, is it really so hard to say? Oh, this has been my longest day...Sitting here close to you, knowing that maybe tonight we're through” She sing softly, humming the melody of a song she rewrote so long ago she barely remembered the original. The rewritten version had been a love song, but the original was a goodbye. Finishing the little number, she sat down upon the floor. She wasn’t quite sure why, but for whichever reason, she did.

 

Ruby watched her daughter sit down on the floor, recognising the song she was softly singing. “Like an image passing by, my love, my life...in the mirror of your eyes, my love, my life. I can see it all so clearly, answer me sincerely, was it a dream, a lie? Like reflections of your mind, my love, my life...Are those the words you try to find?” Ruby bit her lip, with some difficulty getting down on the floor next to her daughter. Feeling brave, she put a hand on top of Donna’s. “But I know I don't possess you, so go away, God bless you.You are still my love and my life. Still my one and only.”

 

“Mum don’t…” Donna felt Ruby laying her hand on hers, and the last of her stubborn walls crumbled. She was saying goodbye to her mother when she knew that that was not what she really wanted to do, and it burned like fire inside her.

 

Ruby shook her head, her eyes not looking at Donna. They kept pushing the decision in front of them, acting as though there was more than one outcome to the situation. Struggling back to her feet, Ruby decided to end it. “I've seen it on your face, tells me more than any worn out old phrase...So now we'll go separate ways. Never again we two.Never again, nothing I can do.” She is still holding her daughter's hand, and as she try to pull away, only to feel her daughter resisting.

 

To her surprise, Donna refuses to let go.

 

“I’ve never felt this strong, I’m invincible, how could this go wrong? No, here, here’s where we belong. I see a road ahead...I never thought I would dare to tread.” Donna smiles up at her mother, squeezing her hand tightly. It’s old and frail and somehow, she realize just how many years of life they have wasted on fighting. “I, I don’t know what you do. You make me think that you, will change forever. I’ll always want you near. Give up on you, my mum, I will never...And finally it seems, our lonely days are through. I’ve been waiting for you.”

 

Ruby nodded. Carefully, she sat back down again. Her body protested against the manhandling, but she still arranged herself on the ground next to her daughter. “I’ll help you all the way and you will choose the day, when you’re prepared to forgive me. I’ll be a good mum, I swear, you’ll see how much I care, when you forgive me.” She stared straight into her daughter's eyes, putting her own dark gaze against her daughter’s light one. “I love you Donna. If you give me this chance, I promise I will not fail you.”

 

Donna nodded. “Maybe you weren’t too late after all.” Smiling and crying all in one Don a pulled her mother into a tight hug. Oddly enough, her memories took her back when she was fifteen. It had been her mum’s anniversary of her first number one hit, and Ruby had had Donna perform with her to celebrate.

 

It was probably the last time they had had a good mother - daughter relationship, as her mother had had an other number one hit soon after, folliwed by Donna leaving for Oxford which put the kast nail in the conffin for the two of them.

 

A little surprised by the hug, Ruby soon hugged her back just as fiercely. “I love you too Donna”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please comment if you liked it!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wooops chapter 8, of a planned 4 chapter story. And there is no ending yet! 
> 
> Either way, I hope you people enjoy this <3

_ “It’s just so hard sometimes, children are such a challenge…” _

 

_ Hearing the muffled voices, Donna tip toed up to the door. It was late, long past Donna's bedtime, and she knew her mother would be angry with her if she saw Donna was out of bed. _

 

_ But Donna had needed to pee, and then she'd heard her mother talking, and she'd been so very curious. What did grown ups talk about when children slept? She wondered, and so, she opened the door to the living room. _

 

_ Her mother only closed the living room door when she didn't want Donna to hear the grown-ups talking, and  the little girl drew back a little at the memory of the last time she was discovered eavesdropping. _

 

_ “I understand that, Ruby, but what can you do? You ditched her father, now you're on your own. It's your own fault.” _

 

_ Her aunt spoke, and Donna edged closer to the sliver of warm light coming from the now slightly opened door. Careful, making sure not to be seen, she sticks her head around the corner. _

 

_ Her mother sits on the sofa, legs crossed and that angry frown on her face, the one that meant whoever it was directed at was in trouble.  _

 

_ “I didn't ditch him and you know it! He insisted to stay and fight in that stupid war, and I had no reason to force him to come with me across the border. He was already dead by the time I realized he'd knocked me up.”  _

 

_ Ruby’s voice is saddened, and the eyes of the ten year old girl at the door went wide. From what little she heard, she understood that her mum and her aunt were talking about her dad. _

 

_ Donna’s mum was saying that Donna's dad was dead. _

 

_ Her mum had never told her that herself. Donna has asked a thousand times, nagging and whining to her mother about how they weren't like all the other girls at school and their families. She tried over and over to get her mum to tell her why they had to be so very different, but all she'd gotten in response was for her mum to tell her to stop asking questions and that she was too little to understand. _

 

_ “Donna!” At that moment, her aunt noticed her standing in the door, and before the adults could start shouting at her for being naughty, she turned around and ran back to her bedroom. _

 

_ Back in her bed, Donns buried her head under her pillow and cried. She cried, salt tears streaming down her cheeks because the dad that all the other children in the class had and which she wanted was dead. _

 

_ Death. It was huge statement, words too much for a little girl to understand, and yet little Donna cried as she was slowly swallowed up by a never ending darkness filled with hurt and loneliness, a feeling which would slowly continue to grow for the next thirty-five years of her life. _

 

_ The feeling would continue to grow inside Donna until the day she met her father. _

 

* * *

 

“What do you think they’re doing in there?” Sophie asked quietly, glancing up at the big doors of the goat house. They had heard muffled yelling almost as soon as they closed them, but none of it had so far been loud enough for the outsiders to listen in.

 

“I don’t know, Sophie.” Fernando said, shaking his head softly. He hadn’t wished to leave Ruby in the first place, and he now worried about his lover, fearing that his daughter moght actually hurt her mother over feelings long burried. “Your mother got quite a temperament when she wants...as does your grandmother, if I recall right.” 

 

“I wouldn’t know about grandma, but you’re right about mum” Sophie sigh. She understood her grandfather’s worries, but prayed they were unfounded. “It’s weird. I never thought I’d have a dad, then I got three. And now I’m getting a grandmother and a grandfather too.” She looked up at Fernando, taking in the foreign face staring down at her. It was kind, but unfamiliar, and Sophie wondered how long it would take before she could reconcile with the fact that Señor Cienfuegos was indeed her mother’s father.  

 

“How do you think I feel?” Fernando smiled bitterly. “I made a woman pregnant forty-five years ago and only just found out. I’ve been working here for a year, and didn’t know my boss was my daughter until earlier today.” 

 

“Shouldn’t you have recognised her last name? Sheridan is not that common, is it? And grandma is like, a huge star too! Did you never see her on TV or something?” Sophie questioned quriously. She didn’t mean to accuse her grandfather of anything, but it felt a bit weird. Not that Sophie had seen her grandmother on TV either, but she grew up in isolation on a tiny greek island.

 

“She never told me her last name, not that I know...and I never saw her on the few TV shows i used to watch down in Mejico. TV was never my thing.” Fernando explained simply. Of course, some people might find it strange how he missed the fact that the woman he ised to love became a legendary star, but the facts were simoly that he had. “The time we had together was short and hurried. I was set to fight in the war and she needed to get back over the border before the fight got any worse. Maybe, if we’d had more time, I would have known about Donna.” Leaning back against the door, Fernando sighed deeply, regretting that he didn't give in when Ruby begged for him to follow her across the border to America.

 

They could have been a perfectly happy little family, but his stubbornness came in the way. He would never stop blaming himself for it.

 

“It wasn’t your fault. You were both just trying to do what’s right.” Sophie comforted, a hand landing on her grandfather’s arm. The sadness on his face broke her and she longed for even the smallest smile. “And you’re here now. With me and mum and grandma. However much you lost, there’s still time to make it up. My dads came into my life twenty years late and I love them more than anything.” Sophie knew twenty years was hardly comparable to forty-five years and having had your daughter believe you were dead, but she thought her grandfather would appreciate the sentiment.

 

Fernando did appreciate the sentiment. He understood that Sophie was doing her best to comfort and smiled, wrapping an arm around is granddaughter and pulling her close to him. Sophie was a very bright young woman, and Fernando now appreciated it more than ever before. It, however, made his next words more painful than he’d anticipated. “Well, I’m not certain how much I will be able to be here with you and Donna. It depends on how Ruby and your mother solve things amongst themselves.” Seeing the worry appearing on Sophie’s face when she heard his statement, he squeezed her around the shoulders. “Don’t worry, I won’t abandon you. But I can’t leave Ruby, either. I refused to follow her once when she asked me too, and it will always be my biggest regret.”

 

Sophie watched her grandfather. She understood how he felt, and though she could not blame him, it hurt.

 

“So you leave us instead.” She says matter pf factly, when a thought struck her. “Did grandma actually ask you to come to America with her?” Sophie wonders, disappointment burning in her gut as she realized that her grandfather might not become the permanent fixture in her life that she would have wished for.

 

Fernando shakes his head at this inquiry. “She told me that she wanted me to stay here, if she had to go back because of Donna. I told her I was never leaving her again.” He turn his head to the right, placing a kiss among the golden blonde hair on top of Sophie’s head. “If your mother and your grandmother can not agree upon a truce, then I will have to try my best to be with you both. I will travel, I’ll come visit. I won’t leave either of you if I can help it.” He is firm, trying as best he can to calm the fears of his granddaughter. After everything that had happened, and all he had lost, he didn’t want to give up neither his daughter and her family nore her mother.

  
  


“You won’t have to pick a side, Fernando. There are no sides.” Ruby's voice is firm, and as Sophie and Fernando turn back around, they can see her standing on the other side of the door, looking out at them. “I'm staying right here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please comment! Replies are promised! <3


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okey guys I PROMISE this is the next to last chapter. This story will have 10 chapters. The end.
> 
> Anyway, enjoy!

**_Do you remember the faithful night we crossed the Rio grande ?_ **

 

_“Please Fernando, come with me across the border.” Ruby begged, having already tried the same tactic multiple times without any success. “We'll be safe, together.”_

 

**_We were young and full of life and none of us prepared to die_ **

 

_Now, she was hanging out the window, begging for him to join her in a desperate last ditch effort to change his mind.  The sounds of war could be heard echoing in the distance, and the rest of the station was filled with soldiers waiting for transport or saying goodbye to loved ones._

 

_Just like Fernando._

 

**_Now we're old and grey, Fernando. Since many years I haven't seen a rifle in your hand._ **

 

_“I love you, Mi amor, but I can not go.” Fernando smiled, straightening a little in his pristine military uniform. A rifle hung over his shoulder, and the sight of the weapon made Ruby shiver. “I got a duty to my country. I need to stay here, in Mejico, to fight for out freedom.” Playfully, he blew her a kiss. “I’ll always remember you, mi amor.”_

 

**_I can see it in your eyes how proud you were to fight for freedom in this land_ **

 

_“I'll come back” Ruby promised, yelling as the train began to move. “After the war, I will see you again. Wait for me!” She waves her hand at her beloved, watching as he grew smaller in the distance._

 

**_Yes, if I had to do the same again, I would, my friend, Fernando_ **

 

* * *

 

 

Slowly, careful not to trip, Ruby stepped out of the barn. Her clothes were wrinkled and her make up was smudged, but she looked happy. After her came Donna. Her eyes were red cried but she was smiling, radiating happiness nonetheless. They came out hand in hand, mother and daughter holding on tight to one another and they faced their family.

 

“Mum!” Sophie was quickly up on her feet, approaching her mother as she came out into the open. She worried for the red cried eyes, but smiled as she saw the smile that rested on her lips.

 

“Sophie!” Letting go of her own mother, Donna greeted her daughter with open arms, revealing in the feeling of knowing that she made the right decision. Her daughter deserved  a grandmother who loved her, and at long last Sophie would have it. “It's all going to be okay.”

 

“Mi amour, are you alright?” Seeing Sophie and Donna rejoyce, Fernando gathered up Ruby in his arms. His hands were on her cheek and he could feel her body trembling, which worried him. “Did you and Donna come to an agreement?”

 

Ruby nodded. Tiredly, she buried her head against his chest as if trying to hide from the world around them. “It's all okay, mi amor” She replied, enjoying his embrace as Donna did likewise with Sophie.

 

“I’m so glad you gave grandma a second chance” Sophie whispered, her arms tight around her mother's waist. “I want us to be a happy family”

 

“Me too baby, me too” Donna agreed with her daughter, trying not to let the tears that were burning in her eyes fall as she kissed her on the head. Across from her, she saw her father comforting her mother.

 

Ruby completely surrendered to Fernando's touch and his embrace, seeking out the warmth and love that he offered. Donna had never witnessed her mother acting that way before, and she could tell how much the proud Ruby Sheridan must trust her lover in order to do so.

 

How much her mother _loved_ her father.

 

Twenty-four hours earlier, Donna would never have believed her mother possessed such emotions. Now, it felt obvious. It felt as Donna was seeing the truth for the first time, and it was convincing.

 

It convinced Donna that Ruby wasn't just going to walk out again when it got tough.

 

“Grandma, can I talk to you?” Sophie asked suddenly, breaking loose from her mother and stepping over to Ruby.

 

Ruby smiled. “Of course you can little girl” Leaving Fernando’s warm embrace, she offered her hand to her granddaughter, letting her lead the way.

 

“We'll go down to the Ocean. Will you two be fine here?” Sophie smiled at Donna and Fernando, her face brightening further as her mother nodded in aknowledgement.

 

“We will be fine, Sophie. Go on” Fernando made a little schooig motion with his hand, light-heartedly trying to chase away his grandchild and lover.

 

“Great! We'll see you soon!” Sophie said, suddenly setting off into a sprint down the hill

“Come one, grandma!”

 

Castign one last glance at her daughter and partber, Ruby laughed, following  after her granddaughter down the hill. “I'm coming Sophie!” She called out, the both of them soon disappearing in the distance.

 

Fernando and Donna stood still at the top of the hill, watching the people they loved the most disappear, off to talk in private without anyone else overhearing what they said.

 

“She'll make an excellent grandmother I'm sure” Fernando said, smiling. Then, he turned to Donna. “She really want this, you know. Me too, if you´ll let me. You and Sophie are our family, and me and Ruby want nothing more than to be part of it.”

 

“And you will.” Donna assured her father, still smiling. “Mum´ll have to work for it, but you are welcome.”

 


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaand its a wrap! After 9 ling chaoters, here id the tenth and finall chapter of Fernando!
> 
> I would like to thank all the readers who habe followed me on thr journey of writing and publishing thus fanfic.
> 
> For thise of you who'd lile to continue reading some more of my work, I'd recommend for you to check out 'A Taste of Ruby' or 'Like an Image passing by'

“Sophie, why have you brought me here?” Coming out onto the beach, Ruby addressed Sophie directly. She was no fool, and could easily see through the innocent childish facade Sophie put up in front of her grandfather and mother.

 

“I wanted to show you the beach” Sophie argued, gesturing around her at the empty beach. 

 

All alone in the sand, it was peaceful and quiet, the only sounds beside those coming from Sophie and Ruby being the sounds of ocean waves hitting the shore. Ruby would truly have loved it, were it not for the elephant in the room.

 

“Sophie, just tell whatever it is you're thinking and be done with it. I love the ocean, but pretty waves is not the reason I am here.” Ruby sigh, kicking off her stilettos and taking a few steps out into the water. She put her back against her granddaughter, not out of anger or spite but because she wanted to show that she would not participate in the ruse.

 

Sophie sigh. “You know you’re very lucky to have gotten a second chance from mum. She doesn’t forgive easily.” She began, stepping into the ocean and moving closer to her grandmother. “you’re going to have to work hard to earn her graces. not everything will come to you just because she choose to forgive”

 

Ruby nodded, one dark eye glancing over at Sophie. “I know. I don’t expect everything to be forgotten, Sophie, I just want to try to be in your lives again.” Ruby said, her red painted lips pulling into a faint smile. “Time to forget, send me a letter, say you forgive, the sooner the better...Hasta mañana, baby, hasta mañana, until then.” She sang softly. This song was even older than any of her other songs she had ever sung on a stage. It was song she had never performed, but loved with all her heart. 

 

She remembered being pregnant, a growing life in her swelling stomach, and a bitter lullaby on her lips. 

 

Then, when the baby had been born, it had been a letter to a man she lost during dark nights wishing he was there with them. 

 

Now, it was song of hope.

 

“Hasta mañana 'til we meet again. Don't know where, don't know when...Darling, the hope was much too strong to die. We'll find a way to face a new tomorrow...Hasta mañana, say we'll meet again.” Discreetly, Sophie grabbed her grandmother's soft hand, squeezing it. The song was familiar to her, one of many tunes her mother would humm absentmindedly at times. “I can't do without you”

 

Ruby nodded, simultaneously smiling at the feeling of a hand in hers. “Where is the spring and the summer, that once was yours and mine? Where did it go? I just don't know...But still my love for you will live forever” It was her promise to Sophie. The sign that what she said was not just talk, but action. 

 

Sophie nodded. “Time to forget, send me a letter. Say you forgive, the sooner the better...Hasta mañana, baby, hasta mañana, until then.” 

 

“That felt good” Ruby laughed a little. “It's been so long since I’ve sung.”

 

“Don't be silly, you're a singer!” Sophie protested. “It was lovely though.”

 

Ruby sigh deeply. Sophie's hand was still in hers, and she squeeze it for courage. “I'm not a singer anymore. I’m a sixty-five year old who hasn't produced an album since the bronzage and is living on royalties and CD purchase made by stupid adolescents when their dad's LP player break down.” Ruby smiled, pulling Sophie into a hug. “The only thing I have left is my family, and I'm willing to fight for it.” She kissed Sophie on the head. The both of them watched the moonlight shining on the water, feeling utterly at peace.

 

It was not easy. It might never be easy. But they had each other, and it was all that truly mattered.   
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Comments, please?


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